WWE TLC, Sunday, December 16, 2018 – SAP Center, San Jose, California
WWE Championship: (C) Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles
SmackDown Women’s Championship – TLC Match: (C) Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka
RAW Women’s Championship: (C) Ronda Rousey vs. Nia Jax
Intercontinental Championship: (C) Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose
TLC Match: Braun Strowman vs. Baron Corbin
(If Corbin wins, he’s permanent Raw GM. If Strowman wins, he faces WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble and Corbin loses power)
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship: (C) The Bar vs. The Usos vs. The New Day
Tables Match: Natalya vs. Ruby Riott
Ladder Match (with guitar hanging above the ring): Elias vs. Bobby Lashley w/Lio rush
Chairs Match: Randy Orton vs. Rey Mysterio
Finn Balor vs. Drew McIntyre
WWE Mixed Match Challenge Finals (Winners get the #30 spot in the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches): Jinder Mahal & Alicia Fox vs. R-Truth & Carmella
WWE Cruiserweight Championship: (C) Buddy Murphy vs. Cedric Alexander
WWE will be taping two episodes of RAW this Monday, with the second episode airing on Christmas Eve. They will also tape two episodes of SmackDown on Tuesday, with the second airing on Christmas.
The following week’s shows won’t be live either. The New Year’s Eve episode of RAW will be taped on Friday, December 28th in Detroit. The New Years episode of SmackDown will be taped on Saturday, December 29th in Pittsburgh.
The theatrical release for the “Fighting with My Family” movie has been pushed back to Thursday, February 21 from the previously announced date of Friday, February 8. The movie will premiere in New York and Los Angeles on Thursday, February 14.
The movie focuses on WWE SmackDown General Manager Paige and her family of pro wrestlers, inspired by a British documentary that was released a few years back. The Rock’s Seven Bucks Productions and WWE Studios are among the companies releasing the movie.
Rock makes a cameo in the movie. Paige is played by actress Florence Pugh with Tessa Blanchard serving as her stunt double. Zelina Vega stars as AJ Lee while Paige’s parents are played by Nick Frost and Lena Headey. The film also features Paige’s brothers participating in WWE tryouts.
As seen below, The Rock has released a new poster for the movie while MGM Studios has released two new stills:
New poster for our lil’ crazy comedy based on the true story of @WWE’s @RealPaigeWWE & her wrestling family. Honor for me to play a small part in Paige’s career defining moment, as well as bringing her family’s story to the big screen. #FightingWithMyFamily@SevenBucksProdpic.twitter.com/CHsA6MwM1U
Natalya says she has no problem with the death of Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart being the focus of her current storyline, because it feels like her father is getting “one last run.”
“My dad was a professional wrestler,” Neidhart told Yahoo in a new interview. “He was a WWE superstar, he was a WWE legend before he passed away and I feel like in some crazy way this is like my dad is having one last run.”
Adding, “I feel like if I asked my dad right now, ‘Daddy, how do you feel about me doing this storyline?’ My dad would say go for it. He understood pro wrestling, he understood how, for fans to become emotionally invested in stories, there has to be emotionally charged content.”
As we previously reported, Anvil passed away in August.
In case you missed it, Ruby Riott displayed a table with Neidhart’s image plastered over it on the latest episode of Raw and told Natalya she’d throw her through it at TLC.
Matt Hardy has been on the shelf since August while he lets his body heal from over two decades in the ring. He’s dabbled as a backstage producer and did a Halloween special for WWE Network, but Hardy has another WWE role in mind.
Hardy has interest in being the Raw General Manager as “Woken” Matt Hardy. He further talked about his ideas if given that title in an interview with Wrestling Inc.’s Akhilesh Gannavarapu.
“Baron Corbin is obviously a character in the role of abusing his power and putting the good guys in bad situations and taking advantage of it,” Hardy stated.
“I think coming in [as GM], it would be a fresh start considering I would be a good guy in many ways. Woken Matt Hardy in being the character he is, and how over the top he is, I think he would be very entertaining in a General Manager role. I could put guys in unique situations or matches. My interactions with each and every talent would be so unique.
“I think the funnest thing between Broken Matt Hardy and Woken Matt Hardy was the interaction I had with other performers. I think if you have Woken Matt Hardy interacting with the women’s division and all the different athletes of the men’s division, I think there would be so much entertaining tv there.”
The Hardy Boyz really made their name at SummerSlam 2000 when they took part in the first-ever TLC match alongside Edge and Christian and the Dudleys. Matt Hardy reminisced about those early matches and how the impact of them is still evident in WWE today.
“It was the matches that put us on the map and made us Superstars in many ways and it also allowed us the opportunity to go out and do things that had never been done before,” said Matt. “Myself and my brother, when we were doing independent matches before we came to WWE, we used to have a lot of matches against each other where I would be Surge Matt Hardy and he would be Willow the Wisp wearing a mask.”
Matt and Jeff used some of the ideas from those matches and pitched them to WWE. One of those ideas was that of a ladder match and Matt said Edge and Christian would make great opponents because of their athleticism and the chemistry between the two teams.
Soon after, the Dudleys were added and history was made.
“We integrated the Dudley Boyz and tables and that’s where all of the TLC insanity began. To me, being one of the forefathers that started that movement, it’s very cool that TLC is now a pay-per-view and a staple of WWE history. It’s cool to be a performer that created something that became a mainstay in WWE,” Matt said.
Matt also discussed the WWE tryouts that are heading to India next year and said he wished he had that opportunity when first starting out.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for anyone that’s an inspiring WWE Superstar,” said Matt. “When Jeff and I first started, we didn’t have an opportunity to go somewhere and get in front of WWE management. We were driving up and down the east coast and networking and hoping to catch a break one day.”
Matt noted how aspiring wrestlers can go sign up at WWE’s Performance Center website in order to get an opportunity in front of the people in charge at WWE.
“If they see something special, something that stands out or the “it” factor, it could gain you the chance to become a WWE Superstar and that’s a golden opportunity and one I wouldn’t pass up,” stated Matt.
He may have been “fired” last week on Raw, but Rhyno is making one thing clear — he’s not retired.
WWE.com shared an exclusive video of Rhyno tonight in which he states, “I just want to clear up a rumor that I’ve seen going on for about a week now on Twitter about me retiring.”
“I am not retired,” he continued. “I am not retiring. I had no plans on retiring.”
In case you missed it, Heath Slater defeated the ECW legend last week to keep his own job on Raw. He was then told he’d become a referee, which played out on last night’s show as Slater reluctantly helped with Baron Corbin’s agenda in two matches.
Rhyno says he’ll be fulfilling his “contractual obligations” to wrestle at upcoming live events in December/January and “after that I don’t know.”
Over the weekend Bray Wyatt wiped out his entire Twitter feed and left a revealing cryptic message.
WWE posted the following on wwe.com:
Bray Wyatt took the WWE Universe aback this weekend, after wiping out his entire Twitter feed and revealing one cryptic message.
In two short – and shadowy – sentences, The Eater of Worlds, who is no stranger to unexpectedness, purged his entire Twitter feed and left one puzzling note that signals an imminent change.
While mysteriousness is usually a part of Wyatt’s toolbelt, the message does pose many questions. What could this dispatch mean for Wyatt’s future? How will this impact the Raw brand? When should we expect this “different” Wyatt to emerge?
Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego, California with the final red brand hype before Sunday’s WWE TLC pay-per-view.
* Has Dean Ambrose finally gotten inside Seth Rollins’ head?
* Natalya and Ruby Riott set the tables
* Heath Slater officially begins new career path
* Did Drew McIntyre’s assault on Finn Bálor change the WWE TLC landscape?
* Alexa Bliss to host pre-WWE TLC press conference
Alexa Bliss has announced a press conference segment for Monday’s WWE RAW in San Diego, the final red brand episode before the TLC pay-per-view.
Bliss wrote, “Since taking over the #Raw Women’s division, I’ve put our female Superstars at the forefront of @WWE. So before @NiaJaxWWE and @RondaRousey face off at #WWETLC, I’m holding a press conference and may actually use some of YOUR questions. Use #AskAlexa …and make them good.”
Bliss, who is the new storyline boss of the red brand women’s division, is taking fan questions for the press conference on Twitter with the hashtag #AskAlexa. It sounds like the presser will center on the TLC match between Nia Jax and RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey.
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